Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The Minister did not address the point. Unless those very talented school leavers had received free or affordable State-led child care in their youth, the Minister's answer was irrelevant. The key issue is affordability for many people. Some 70% of women earn less than €30,000 per year. Child care for two children in a Dublin crèche costs €27,000, leaving no money for anything else. Unless we address this, all the Government's platitudes about putting people back to work are utterly irrelevant. While I appreciate that there has been some State support around the edges, the model is all wrong, given that it is essentially based on private child care. The Minister has not commented on this. Does he not think it would be better if we attached early child care or preschool in an educational context, linked to our education system, rather than a privatised model?

See this speech in context